Holding On Is Not Easy Poem by Shalom Freedman

HOLDING ON IS NOT EASY

Holding on is not easy
I do not really know how I do it
Sometimes it seems the complaint and criticism
Will defeat me completely
I try to remain sane
I try to believe the future will not be
An incredible horror of incredibly complex and insoluble problems
I try to believe
It is not all bad and going only to worse
I try to hold on
I do not know how I do it
I pray
Certainly I pray to God for help
I take small actions I know I am still capable of
I write if I can a small poem
I try to think of the ‘positive’
I remember I have been through such times in the past
I go out to walk
I take a drink or something small to eat
I do an exercise
I wait for the light of a new day
I tell myself ‘Falling apart will only bring sorrow and problems to those I love’
I try to think of things I might do to make the situation better
I exercise a bit
I go to Shul
I pray to God for help
I read articles on the Internet
I try to keep going
I tell myself it will somehow get better
As it has in the past
I write a few words
And I tell myself
There are worse things in the world
Than having had great ambitions and failed
I remind myself I have been kind sometimes to others
I go on somehow without knowing how
I pray to God
I have gotten out of these things before
I am already getting out of this one